Drabbles of a Snake
by Crowsister
Summary: Just some drabbles with my OC, Viper. I'm exploring her character a bit. Rated T, just in case.
1. Fully Alive

**Fully alive**  
**More than most**  
**Ready to smile and love life**  
**Fully alive and she knows**  
**How to believe in futures**

_~Fully Alive by Flyleaf_

* * *

Viper looked down at the people of her hometown, Animalia.

_The city mostly centered on the multiple zoos, pet stores, and any other business that featured animals. My father worked part time as a security officer in a neighboring city for a weapons plant, but also worked with the snakes at many of the zoos. I had often gone with him to the zoos. There I became fascinated with vipers._

_To me, they were more than just snakes. . .they were what my mother told me I should be. Dangerous and beautiful, vipers were just the inspiration I needed. When her father finally figured out who my mother was, he threw me right back to my mother, who let me live in one of her "bolt holes" in Steel City. That was when I started her late night "play dates" with the cops._

_My mother was a thief, so getting the snake skins was no problem. All I had to do was stitch them together. The result was a loose jacket, patterned after the leather jacket Marlon Brando wore in the 1953 movie, "The Wild One". It was a bit bulky, but it produced the sizzling sound that the Echis produced as a warning sound. It was a good trademark_

_Under the jacket, I sometimes wore Kevlar padding. But most of the time, my "jobs" didn't involve people with guns, so I usually wore a form fitting tan tank top and black bellbottom jeans._

_My other trademark, a belt, I had gotten from a popular clothing store. It was a recycled seat belt from a Dodge Viper. On the buckle, there was the logo in silver with a black background._

_My mother, Catwoman, encouraged all of my "play dates". She saw herself in me, despite the animal differences._

Viper shook her head. She was here to get the past out of her head, not to dwell on it.

She saluted the blinking lights, "Good bye, Anamalia."

She turned and jumped onto an elevated train that read "Steel City".

"Hello Steel City, my new future."

_I was ready for my future adventures...whatever they may be. _

_I am ready to smile and dream again._


	2. Friends equal Wings

**"A friend is someone who understands your past, believes in your future, and accepts you just the way you are."**

~Anonymous

* * *

"I'm coming to Steel City."

Viper blinked in surprise. She was on the video phone with her best friend, Blue Vanarsdale. His blue hair was gelled up to have a spikey, blown look. His unnatural looking grey eyes had an amused, but concerned twinkle in them that really bugged Viper.

"Blue, you can't be serious. The people here would eat you alive and spit you out. I'm not worth it."

He shrugged, "Eris, you're like my little sister. I have an instinct to protect you. Blame the alien DNA."

"Right…stupid alien DNA," Viper replied sarcastically as she rolled her olive green eyes.

Blue's eyebrows formed a frown, "Eris O' Donald, I'm not kidding. I'm coming to Steel City."

"It's Eris Kyle now, goggle-head," Viper replied with a sad, forlorn tone.

Blue chuckled nervously, "Oh…right. Your dad threw you out."

"I blame him and his beer…Blue; I need you there to protect Dawn. Now, it's just her, my dad, and the alcohol," Viper replied.

"My mom's got it covered. She's investigating him for child abuse. If things work out, she'll be coming right behind me."

"…you're kidding me."

"I don't kid very often about things like this, Eris."

Viper sighed and rubbed her temples to fight off an on-coming headache.

"Well…if you're coming here, get in the habit of calling me Viper. And think of a name for yourself."

Blue grinned, "Knew you'd see it my way. Call me…Jay."

"Jay?"

"Like Blue Jay. I'll be your eye in the sky."

"But…you can't fly."

"…I'm working on that with my dad."

* * *

**Friends are like your wings – they'll help you fly higher.**


	3. Same or Similar?

**We're totally different…  
**Yet…so similar.**  
Who are we?  
**Are we the same?**  
Or are we just alike?**

* * *

Viper grumbled as she waited. She was doing a bit of charity work, a stunt show to be specific.

_It seemed that was all I was doing these days since I was on my own. I wasn't in my mother's league of stealing yet, but I was far better than most people…especially those H.I.V.E. kids. They didn't know the meaning of "stealth"._

_But…I felt bad about stealing. I didn't need it to survive at an early age like my mother did, so my morals are different than my mother's._

Viper shook her head. Now was not the time to think. Now was the time to act.

"You okay?" a voice asked.

Viper spun around to see a younger girl four inches shorter than herself.

She had straight, dusty brown hair and tan skin. She wore a black sweatshirt with a grey silhouette of a wolf, some trees, and some sort of elf with two moons and the words, "to hunt, to howl, to live free!" in orange. The girl also wore grey cargo shorts. But that wasn't what caught Viper's attention at first.

The girl's eyes were a bright shade of yellow. An eerie yellow, like the kind you see in wolf or cat eyes. Viper felt like the girl was staring right into her soul…

The second thing that caught Viper's attention was a wolf tail the same color as the girl's hair. It slowly went back and forth, almost absentmindedly.

Viper snapped out of it, "I'm fine…just doing some unnecessary thinking."

"Ah…not the sort of thing you want before a stunt show," the girl replied with a nod.

"_How old is this chick? 14, 15? But she acts like she knows a lot…like an old woman," _Viper thought to herself.

Viper smiled, "Exactly…name's Viper. You?"

"…I don't exactly have a name right now," the girl replied.

Viper blinked, "What? Why?"

"Because I'm trying to lay low. My brother was captured by a gang and I'm trying to find him," the girl sighed, "Sorry…actually, I do have a name, but I can't share it. I don't want my relatives to find me."

Viper replied, "I know how that is…how about we think up a name right now, while we're waiting for the Goddamn show to start."

The girl blinked, "You'd do that…for me?"

"Heck, I'll do it for anyone who's nice enough to ask me if I'm okay," Viper replied as she sat down on a nearby bench. She patted the spot next to her.

The girl hesitated a moment, but then sat next to Viper.

Viper replied, "Okay…so first things first, what animal does that tail belong to?"

"A Mexican grey wolf," the girl replied.

Viper nodded, "Okay…how long have you been alone?"

"Three or so years," the girl answered.

Viper's smile grew, "Then the name has been lookin' you in the face for a while."

"It has?"

"Yeah. Wolf," Viper replied.

The girl thought a moment, _"It fits. My howl, the tail, my standoff-ish-ness…"_

"Okay. Call me Wolf then," the newly dubbed Wolf replied.

Viper smiled, "Will do, Wolf."

"Now…the moment you've been waiting for…**STEEL CITY'S CHARITY STUNT SHOW WILL NOW BEGIN!**" the loud speakers echoed.

"'Bout time," Wolf and Viper said in unison. They looked at each other and laughed.

Viper wrote down her number, "If you ever have need of me, just call this number, k?"

Wolf took the number and put it in one of her pockets, "I'll keep that in mind."

Music began playing.

Viper and Wolf smiled, "I love this song!"

They looked at each other, "You like Superchick too?"

"Yeah! They rock!" Viper cheered as they went out on stage.

Wolf grinned, "Agreed. Now…let's show these people how to rock!"

* * *

It's weird...  
**...how we're eerily alike.  
**Like two puzzle pieces.  
**I have a feeling...  
**...that we'll make a good team.


	4. Chat

**A ****stand up paddle**** is a type of paddle used in stand up paddle surfing. The stand up paddle is used to propel an individual across the surface of the water while standing on a surfboard. The paddle consists of a blade, shaft and handle.**

_From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia_

* * *

Viper stood strong against the bitter winds of Steel City Harbor in her orange wetsuit. Her short, choppy black hair danced on top of her head and her green eyes had a bright gleam of determination. She was barefoot, her size eight tan feet contrasting on a green and white paddle board. In her long fingered hands was a black handle to a paddle. The blade was the same green as the board and had a classic silver snake forming an "S" on it.

The tide was pretty calm. It looked a bit like glass.

"You know, you should really wear something on your feet. They'll get frostbite," a calm voice replied.

Viper looked up. A black haired teen around her age sat on a ledge in the middle of the nearby cliff. His eyes were black, but you could tell where he was looking by two small white dots. He wore a streamlined black and blue uni-tard.

Viper shrugged, "Health doesn't seem to be my biggest problem right now. Besides, now-a-days I could have my feet replaced with metal robotic ones."

"Touché…I'm Aqualad," the teen replied.

Viper nodded, "I know…I've seen you and your Titans East friends around. I'm Julia Doe."

_Jane Doe was an old alias of my mother so changing the first name created the perfect name for me. I had a friend named Julia back when I used to go to school in Animalia. We used to joke around about being jealous of each other's names…Julia wanted an exotic name while I just wanted to fit in better. The kids at the school always made fun of me because my eyes weren't the same color as my hair, something that branded the popular kids at the school._

"Are you a fan?" Aqualad asked, seemingly curious. Viper knew better by the look in his eyes – the look of sheer panic.

_Why would a super be afraid of fans? I thought that some supers did what they did for the fame...the glory…the recognition that they were depraved of as a child._

Viper nodded, "A bit, but not the crazy kind that you're used to. I'm part of the six percent that is just grateful to what you guys do."

…_I'm not sure if I'm lying or telling the truth anymore. It's all blurred in my mind…_

Aqualad sighed in relief, "Oh…okay. So what brings you to Iron Cliffs?"

"Just relaxing. Needed a break from the city and sadly, this city does not have a park I could chill in. So I come out here," Viper replied, "No cars honking, no people shouting at each other, just the waves crashing against the rock and the seagulls. Why's a big shot hero like you out here?"

"Same as you. I needed to get away from my teammates. Speedy was eating my friends again, Más and Menos were singing something Spanish that sounded suspiciously like 'It's a Small World', and Bumblebee was playing the texting game with Cyborg," Aqualad replied.

Viper sat down on her board, using her feet to keep her still in the water, "The what game? And how was Speedy eating your friends?"

"Some game where you text back and forth with different jokes. Bumblebee was seriously starting to grind on my nerves with her giggling," Aqualad answered, "And I come from the ocean. Those fish in those tacos could have been friends of mine."

Viper smiled, "I know what you mean. My friends get on my nerves too. They sometimes do it on purpose."

"Exactly! Speedy sometimes just gets fish tacos just to annoy me! Or he makes us all tuna sandwiches and claims they're chicken!" Aqualad ranted.

Viper giggled, "He sure sounds like he wants to be noticed."

"That's Speedy alright. He's a bit of a wanna be playboy too, so watch out," Aqualad warned.

Viper smirked, "Oh…don't worry. I've dealt with his kind my entire life. I could bring him back to our level lickety split. He doesn't stand a chance against me."

"Eh, still, I'd be careful," Aqualad replied.

Viper shrugged, still smirking, "Speedy's the one who needs to be careful. He has more of the crazy fans than you and they've been concocting a scheme to get into the tower to steal some…very private things of his."

Aqualad chuckled, "Oh really?"

"Mmhmm…they try to get me to spy on you guys," Viper replied.

Aqualad raised an eyebrow, "How? You can barely see the tower from the rocks."

"It's more of that they're making fun of me. See, normally I'm really quiet so I tend to scare people," Viper replied.

Aqualad asked, "Then why are you so chatty to me?"

"Because according to what I hear, you're the nice guy of your team. It's not in your nature to use information to make fun of people," Viper replied, "Now, sorry to cut this short, but I gotta go. I've got to pick up my little sister from her gymnastics class."

Viper waved and started to paddle back towards shore.

Aqualad called after her, "Bye. Maybe I'll see you later."

_Oh, you will. Just not the way you think…and probably some of that too._

Viper replied, "Probably. See ya."

Aqualad smiled and helped her a bit by making the current push her a little. He went inside to see Speedy fuming on the couch.

"What crawled up your tights and died?" Aqualad asked, sitting down.

Speedy growled, "You…just talked to the girl who I've been wanting to talk to for weeks!"

"So? All we did was talk about how friends sometimes annoy us on purpose. Not like we scheduled a date or anything," Aqualad replied, rolling his eyes.

Speedy exclaimed, "You…you just don't get it, do you? I've been trying to work up the nerve to even talk to her and you just strolled up and talked to her, no problem! I don't even know her name!"

"Well you do now. Her name is Julia Doe, she doesn't seem like a city girl because she comes out here to get away from all the noise pollution, she's made fun of because she's quiet, and she has a little sister who does gymnastics. Happy?" Aqualad replied.

Speedy blinked, "…kinda."

Aqualad sighed and got up.

"Oh yeah, get new locks. Julia said that you have some crazy fan girls planning something," Aqualad replied as he left the room.

He could have sworn he heard Speedy cuss and mutter, "Not again…they took my boxers last time."


	5. the Snake and the Princess

Sisterhood can be a blessing or a curse…it all depends on the sisters.

* * *

"Can we go look at the kittens after school today, Eri?"

Viper sighed, "Sure Dawn. We can go look at the kittens."

Viper stood at the bus stop with an eight year old girl, her half sister Dawn.

The two looked completely different. While Viper's hair was black and short (to a boy, it'd be considered medium), Dawn had the hair of a story tale princess. That is to say, long golden hair that reached her ankles when down and had all the perfect waves to it. She was pale and had big, dark brown eyes.

_The dark brown eyes…the only thing she shared with our father. The same eyes of the one who took me to the zoo multiple times…_

_The same eyes of the one who yelled and threw beer bottles at me the night he found out who my mother was._

_The same eyes that haunted my nightmares._

"Eri?"

Viper snapped out of it, "Yeah?"

"I love you. You're the best big sister I could ever have," Dawn replied as she hugged Viper.

Viper sighed.

_If you knew what I did at night, would you still love me?_

The older girl hugged back, "I love you too. You're the best little sister I could ever ask for."

"Thankies…remember, kittens after school," Dawn replied as she let Viper go as a yellow bus rolled up.

The door opened and Dawn bound up the steps.

Viper replied, "Right. Kittens."

Dawn grinned and went unto the bus.

Viper smiled.

_Yeah. She'd still love me. No matter who her father is, we're still sisters._

_And sisters stay with each other until the end._

**

* * *

**

**An older sister is a friend and defender - a listener, conspirator, a counselor and a sharer of delights. And sorrows too.**  
~Pam Brown


End file.
